For the video “I Dream in Neon” by Dirty Beaches, director Michael Lawrence traveled to Germany to collaborate with Alex Zhang Hungtai (aka Dirty Beaches) on the project. The dark and partially autobiographical video features Alex as a the main character, highlighting what Michael describes as him putting “everything” into his work. We talked to Michael about the video, shooting in Germany, and having to write part of the script due to a broken down Trans Am and a police raid.

Doug: What was the process like collaborating with Alex Zhang Hungtai on the story?

Michael: After speaking over email for months, we met up at his place, a few blocks away from where i was staying in Neukolln. The story evolved as we drank more vodka. It got darker, more fragmented, in the best way possible. We were living amongst all of the streets - later our shooting locations - wandering and talking. Alex has a very clear idea of what he wants, and a great cinematic sense. He's one of the more intuitive and sensitive people I've ever met. In some ways parts of the story are directly autobiographical, at least in mood. I think we had both been through a similar grind - hustling, traveling, staying up all night, making mistakes, and then putting that into our work.

Doug: Is Alex as much of a badass in real life as he appears to be in this video?

Michael: Ha! In some ways, yes. In other ways a lot about music, film, all of this is performance. But he's definitely led an interesting life. Vagabonding. I can definitely attest to the fact that he puts EVERYTHING into his art. A lot of people talk about, he's really doing it.

Doug: What were your goals for the mood of this video? What tone were you going for?

Michael: We talked about the memories and moments that went into motivating the piece long before we shot anything. We knew it had to be at night for a number of reasons. Shooting at night begins to immediately limit your color palette - the greens, reds, and oranges were what we had for exposure, and its also the world the piece was meant to live in. It's all kind of like a fever dream.

Doug: The video was shot in Germany, but it features a Pontiac Trans Am pretty heavily, which is an American car. Was there something significant about this car that lead you guys to use it?

Michael: The original script was very much centered on a car as a character, a symbol for the drifting nights and a life on the road. We looked all around Berlin for an 80s muscle car. It also had to be automatic, which is tricky in Europe. After days of searching we found this eccentric man an hour south on the Autobahn. I drove down with the producer and we met him in a random parking lot on a Sunday morning - everything was closed, and he reeked of booze. He showed us the car, which hadn't been started in years, and was covered in leaves and cobwebs and stuff. It was fitting. I drove it back on the autobahn, thinking I was going to die, as it wouldn't get above 40mph. We barely made it back to Mitte for our first shot. Later that night, the car died in East Berlin after getting pulled over by undercover police in this weird raid, and the car wouldn't start after. Dejected and freezing, Alex and I went to a diner spot at 5am and re-wrote the script, then left for Hamburg in the morning.

Doug: What did the location offer in this video that others would not have?

Michael: Germany was so foreign to me and Alex, so lonely in the cold. It fit the state of mind we were in. Locations came together through recommendations from friends, wandering, and later on, paying the last 100 euros in my pocket to two prostitutes so we could shoot in their brothel. It was just all really dark and really, unseasonably cold.

Doug: You worked with German DP Bjoern Knechtel on this project. Did the fact that he was a local add anything to the project?

Michael: Björn brought so much to the project. I don't know if him being foreign or local had so much to do with it. His respect for people and his craft probably had a greater impact. It was subtle, but he took the most basic tools and brought it all to a whole new level. It's so rare that you have that. We were all lost in the world of the film.

Doug Klinger is the co-founder/content director of IMVDb and watches more music videos than anyone on earth. You can find him on twitter at @doug_klinger.